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T. Ch. Ogwueleka
ABSTRACT
Municipal solid waste management has emerged as one of the greatest challenges facing environmental protection
agencies in developing countries. This study presents the current solid waste management practices and problems
in Nigeria. Solid waste management is characterized by inefficient collection methods, insufficient coverage of
the collection system and improper disposal. The waste density ranged from 280 to 370 kg/m3 and the waste
generation rates ranged from 0.44 to 0.66 kg/capita/day. The common constraints faced environmental agencies
include lack of institutional arrangement, insufficient financial resources, absence of bylaws and standards,
inflexible work schedules, insufficient information on quantity and composition of waste, and inappropriate
technology. The study suggested study of institutional, political, social, financial, economic and technical aspects
of municipal solid waste management in order to achieve sustainable and effective solid waste management in
Nigeria.
Keywords: Waste disposal, Waste Collection, Municipal solid waste, Nigeria, Recycling, Waste Management
INTRODUCTION
Nigeria is located in Western Africa on the comprises thirty-six states and one Federal Capital
Gulf of Guinea. The country land borders with Territory, which were further subdivided, into
the Republic of Benin in the West, Chad and 774 Local Government Areas. Life expectancy is
Cameroon in the East, and Niger in the north and 47 years (average male/female). The government
has a coastline of at least 853km. Nigeria has a provides education free at primary school level.
varied landscape, from the Obudu Hills in the 68% of the population are literate and the rate of
southeast through the beaches in the south, the men (75.7%) is higher than for women (60.9%).
rainforest, the Lagos estuary and savannah in The climate is equatorial in south, tropical in
the middle and south west of the country and the centre and arid in north. 33.02% of the land is
sahel to the encroaching Sahara in the extreme arable.
north. The country has two main rivers: Niger and The Federal Government of Nigeria has
Benue. The two rivers converge and empty into promulgated various laws and regulations to
the Niger Delta, the world’s largest river delta. safeguard the environment. These include Federal
Nigeria is a developing country, with a land area Environmental Protection Agency Act of 1988.
of 923,768 km2, and a population of about 140 The Federal Ministry of Environment administers
million with growth rate of 2.38. Nigeria is the and enforces environmental laws in Nigeria. It
most populous country in Africa and ninth most took over this function in 1999 from the Federal
populous country in the world. With populations Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA), which
distributed at 48.3% urban and 57.7% rural and was created under the FEPA Act.
population density at 139 people per square km. Pursuant to the FEPA Act, each state and local
The country has GDP per capita of $1,800 and government in the country set up its own
population below poverty line is 60%. Nigeria environmental protection body for the protection
has a labour force of 50.13 million. The country and improvement of the environment within its
*Corresponding author: ogwueleka@yahoo.co.uk jurisdiction. Municipal solid waste management
Tel: +08035061048 is a major responsibility of state and local
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T. Ch. Ogwueleka, MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE CHARACTERISTICS...
government environmental agencies. The 77-95% of their revenue on collection and the
agencies are charged with the responsibility of balance on disposal (Ogwueleka, 2003), but
handling, employing and disposing of solid waste can only collect almost 50-70% of municipal
generated. The state agencies generate fund from solid waste (MSW). In the past, the focus has
subvention from state governments and internally been on the technical aspects of different means
generated revenue through sanitary levy and of collection and disposal(World Bank, 1992),
stringent regulations with heavy penalties for but recently, attention has been on enhancing
offenders of illegal dumping and littering of institutional arrangement to service delivery, with
refuse along streets (Ogwueleka, 2003). a special emphasis on privatization (Cointreau,
Municipal solid waste management(MSWM) 1994). Nigeria is presently experimenting with
Municipal solid waste (MSW) is defined to the privatization of this sector. The Federal
include refuse from households, non-hazardous Government has instituted National Integrated
solid waste from industrial, commercial and Municipal Solid Waste Management Intervention
institutional establishments (including hospitals), Programme in seven cities of Nigeria. The seven
market waste, yard waste, and street sweepings. cities are Maiduguri, Kano, Kaduna, Onitsha,
Municipal solid waste management (MSWM) Uyo, Ota, and Lagos. Lagos state government
refers to the collection, transfer, treatment, established municipal solid waste management
recycling, resources recovery and disposal of solid policy to encompass private sector participation
waste in urban areas. The goals of municipal solid in waste collection and transfer to designated
waste management are to promote the quality of landfill sites.
the urban environment, generate employment This paper aims to examine current solid waste
and income, and protect environmental health management practices and problems in Nigeria.
and support the efficiency and productivity of the The specific aims are the following:
economy.
Solid waste management has emerged as one -to present the current state of municipal solid
of the greatest challenges facing state and local waste in Nigeria, and the challenges it faces.
government environmental protection agencies -to document solid waste problems in Nigeria.
in Nigeria. The volume of solid waste being -to recommend and discuss applicable solutions
generated continues to increase at a faster rate to the solid waste management system.
than the ability of the agencies to improve on
the financial and technical resources needed to MATERIALS AND METHODS
parallel this growth. Solid waste management in In this study, nine cities namely Lagos, Maiduguri,
Nigeria is characterized by inefficient collection Kano, Ibadan, Makurdi, Port-Harcourt, Onitsha,
methods, insufficient coverage of the collection Nsukka, Abuja were chosen as urbanistic
system and improper disposal of solid waste. representatives of the current solid waste
The quantity of solid waste generated in urban management in Nigeria. The selection of the
areas in industrialized countries is higher than in municipalities is based on the existing situation
developing countries; still municipal solid waste with different waste management problems,
management remains inadequate in the latter. size, and challenges. Lagos is the former capital
Solid waste in developing countries differs from of Nigeria and the largest city in Nigeria. Abuja
developed countries. Most developing countries, is the capital city of Nigeria. Kano, Onitsha
Nigeria, inclusive have solid waste management and Port-Harcourt are commercial cities while
problems different from those found in Makurdi is the capital city of Benue State in the
industrialized countries in areas of composition, middle belt regions of Nigeria. Ibadan is one of
density, political, and economic framework, the major urban centres. Maiduguri metropolis
waste amount, access to waste for collection, has been an administrative, cultural and religious
awareness and attitude. The wastes are heavier, centre. The locations are given in Fig. 1. The
wetter and more corrosive in developing cities study was undertaken from April to October,
than developed cities. 2007 and carried out in three steps.
In developing countries, local authorities spend Step 1: Documents, records and academic
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Iran. J. Environ. Health. Sci. Eng., 2009, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 173-180
175
T. Ch. Ogwueleka, MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE CHARACTERISTICS...
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Iran. J. Environ. Health. Sci. Eng., 2009, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 173-180
metals, textile, rubber and glass. Table 2 shows In developing countries, waste stream is over
a comparative analysis of municipal solid waste 50% organic material (Hoornweg et al., 1999).
composition in some major cities in Nigeria. It Studies in Bandung, Indonesia and Colombia, Sri
can be seen that great majority of the total solid Lanka have found residential waste composed of
waste generated in Nigeria is organic. The high 78% and 81% compostable material, and market
level of reuse of recyclable waste reflects the waste 89% and 90% compostable, respectively
extent of poverty in the developing countries. (Cointreau, 1982).
Table 2: Composition of waste stream characteristics
Others = dust, ash, ceramics, rubber, soil, bones
α
Diaz and Golueke (1985) , β Ogwueleka (2003) , ± Ogwueleka (2006), ¥ Agunwamba et al (1998), µ Cointreau (1982), # Dauda and Osita (2003)
177
T. Ch. Ogwueleka, MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE CHARACTERISTICS...
the side of the road. condition the soil. The waste could be converted to
Open dumping of waste cannot be considered as compost or used to generate biogas. Composted
a long-term environmental method of disposal. material could be used as fertilizer. Composting
The dangers of open dumping are many; health programme does not exist in Nigeria but there
hazard to scavengers at the dump site, pollution of are back yard composting efforts in Nigeria.
ground water, spread of infectious diseases, highly Composting is the process of aerobic biological
toxic smoke from continuously smouldering fires decomposition of organic materials under
and foul odours from decomposing refuse. controlled condition of temperature, humidity and
Eight landfills exist in Lagos State. In Abuja, pH. Windrow composting is the least expensive
the present controlled dumpsite is along outer and can be most appropriate to the socio-economic
northern expressway, (ONEX). There is no tipping and climatic conditions in developing countries.
fee. Waste can be disposed in several ways but International Non-Governmental Organisations
sanitary landfill is the only land disposal options (NGOs) have sponsored small scale composting
that enable control and effective mitigation of in Nigeria but the practice has not had significant
extreme emission and of surface and groundwater impact in Nigeria (UNEP-IETC, 1996).
contamination. Sanitary landfill requires much
greater initial investment and hence higher DISCUSSION
operating costs than controlled dumps. Sanitary Waste management constraints and problems
landfill technologies were introduced in Lagos facing local agencies
and Onitsha two decades ago. But presently the Poor funding is one of the main reasons for
landfills are not operational. Open dumping is poor collection and disposal of refuse. Lack of
the most common practice. There is no landfill funds has forced most environmental protection
regulation or standard that provides a basis for agencies in the country to hire vehicles and
compliance and monitoring. Wastes in open maintain few staff on a permanent basis (ESESA,
dumps are set on fires in order to reduce the 1998). The waste management fee is insufficient
volume of the wastes. to cover for waste management. Environmental
Incineration is the high temperature combustion of agencies do not have adequate capacity to handle
wastes. Incineration and waste to energy (WTE) the increasing solid waste mainly due to limited
is not practiced in Nigeria except in the hospitals budgets. Low morale of environmental protection
where medical wastes are incinerated at a small agencies workers due to poor remuneration
scale. Construction and start up maintenance and stagnation in promotion also affect solid
costs of incineration facilities are too expensive waste management. In Anambra State in 2002-
for developing countries. Incineration requires 2003, Anambra State Environmental Protection
strict control of toxic fumes and disposal of Agency staff salaries were withheld for 18
toxic residues (ash) in sanitary landfill. Three months. Environmental protection agencies are
incinerators build in Lagos in 1979 were never understaffed and adequately staffed with poorly
used. Two of them were dismantled in 1989 and trained workers. The agencies are faced with
the third was converted into a civic centre. The financial difficulties in meeting the large payment
failure of these incinerators demonstrated that of wages. Hardly a year goes by without threats
incinerators are not sustainable. The waste in of strikes by workers demanding past due wages.
developing countries contains so much moisture Late approval of budgets by the parent ministry
that fuel has to be added to maintain combustion. has also resulted in cash flow problems. In some
Low calorific value and low combustible cities revenue from solid waste management
components of solid waste in Nigeria make collections are simply rolled into the general
incineration uneconomical (Ogwueleka, 2003). treasury, as opposed to returning to waste
This suggests that composting could be a very related operations and cumbersome procurement
viable recovery alternative. procedures.
In rural areas, food from households is feed to Inappropriate sitting, design, operations and
animals, some are home composted and used to maintenance of dumps and landfills have
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Iran. J. Environ. Health. Sci. Eng., 2009, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 173-180
increased transfer and disposal cost and also equipment is always difficult. Compactor trucks
inadequate onsite storage facilities. are designed to handle low density waste. Solid
Lack of institutional arrangement: lack of wastes in developing countries like Nigeria
expertise and manpower to run solid waste contain large organic matter and high density
management programme in Nigeria. Majority which makes compaction unnecessary. This is
of environmental agency workers have little insufficient information about the quantities and
or no functional background or training in quality of the waste generated within their areas.
engineering and management, so the operations The waste component weight will affect the size
result in ineffective and inefficient solid waste of the equipment, and the quantity of energy to
management. There is no reliable measurement be produced.
of generated waste. Non-appreciation of the The vehicles are obsolete and too expensive to
magnitude of the waste management is a problem. operate and maintain. The containers are old and
The role of the informal sector has not been too few. For example, Borno State Environmental
recognised by environmental agencies. Protection Agency (BOSEPA) has a total of nine
The cities networks, traffic congestion and vehicles in Maiduguri, seven tippers, one loader
narrow roads contribute to the inefficient waste and one gully emptier, out of which only four
collection in Onitsha, Lagos, Benin etc. In Onitsha tippers and one loader are functioning (Dauda
and Lagos collection vehicles spend three to four and Osita, 2000).
hours per day collecting waste, typically making
two trips to the disposal sites. Harsh condition Strategies towards improvement of MSWM
of roads and infrastructures has led to constant The common approaches to municipal solid
break down of the collection trucks. In Nigeria, waste management used by development
slums and squatter areas appear in the poor agencies and international donor agencies often
neighbourhood of most cities with narrow, hilly, fail in developing countries inclusive of Nigeria.
bad and unpaved streets. This makes it impossible The conventional approaches usually involve
for environmental agencies to service the areas. solutions that are centralized and undiversified
Where it does, it damages the vehicles. do not distinguish the different needs and
Non-rational routes for collection services are heterogeneity of city. They are bureaucratic that
problems. Solid waste collection vehicles are only consider the formal sector, ignoring informal
assigned to districts without any serious waste sector. They are capital intensive approaches
analysis, route selection is left for drivers. In involving advanced technology and equipment.
most cities in Nigeria, solid waste collection is Most developing countries, Nigeria inclusive
done in an adhoc manner, which contributes to have solid waste management problems different
high solid waste collection cost and the crippling from those found in developed countries in areas
fuel crisis. The vehicles are not full on some trips of composition, density, political and economic
to the disposal site. framework, and in waste amount, access to waste
Failure to optimize collection vehicle productivity for collection, awareness and attitudes, so a
by selecting crew size and shift direction different approach is needed. The socioeconomic
contributes to high collection cost. In developed conditions in the third world are so different from
countries, the labour cost is cheap compared those of the developed world, that a different
to the cost of equipment. The developing approach is needed. To achieve sustainable
countries need low capital cost and high labour and effective waste management there is need
intensive. Nigeria has abundance of unskilled to consider the political, institutional, social,
and inexpensive labour. In Makurdi optimizing financial, economic and technical aspects of
crew size resulted in cost saving of 32.69% of the MSWM in Nigeria.
collection cost (Ogwueleka, 2004). Developed countries enjoy a relative abundance
In most cities of Nigeria, compaction trucks are of capital and have high labour cost while
used. These trucks are uncommon, expensive and developing countries like Nigeria have a
difficult to repair. Maintenance of uncommon relative scarcity of capital and an abundance of
179
T. Ch. Ogwueleka, MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE CHARACTERISTICS...
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS in low-income countries of Asia, How to cope with
the Garbage crisis, Available in the website: http;//
I acknowledge the assistance of staff of Federal www.sandec.ch.
Ministry of Environment and state agencies in
preparing this paper.
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